Oct 30, 2015

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on Oct. 27 that it has approved, for the first time, an oncolytic (cancer-killing) viral therapy in the United States. The drug was approved for use against late-stage melanoma, a deadly skin cancer that can be difficult to treat.

The approval came as the result of a recent Phase III study, which showed that more patients with late-stage melanoma, treated with a herpes cold sore virus designed to kill tumor cells, had a better response when compared to a different treatment. Robert Andtbacka, M.D., from Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah and Howard L. Kaufman, M.D., from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, led the multisite study, published May 26 online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

According to Andtbacka, “The goal of this targeted therapy is to treat late stage patients more effectively and with fewer side effects.”